When post-election violence last winter disrupted the treatment of HIV-positive patients, North American partners of Kenya's Moi University raised $100,000 to finance alternative methods of getting drugs to patients.
The consortium, the American/Sub-Saharan Africa Network for Training and Education in Medicine, supports a model treatment and prevention program with 72,000 HIV-positive patients, adding about 1,500 to 2,000 patients a month, according to Dr. Sylvester Kimaiyo, director of the program. The political instability put exceptional strains on the clinical side of the partnership with Moi University in Eldoret, about 190 miles from Nairobi.
As the nation became chaotic in late December and early January, patients did not come to the clinics for medicine, Kimaiyo said. The staff relied on cell phones - which are common in Kenya - to track migration of patients, and they sent workers to distribute medicine in refugee camps, private homes, and makeshift clinics.
The North American partners include medical schools at Brown University, Indiana University, Duke University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Utah, as well as hospitals in Portland, Ore., and Allentown, Pa.
During a recent visit to Providence, Kimaiyo also described a model program he runs in western Kenya that encourages HIV testing. Health counselors go door-to-door in various communities, using local liaisons to get invitations to homes. In one area, about 18,000 out of 20,000 eligible people were tested over a period of four months last year. Also, 439 HIV-positive patients were enrolled in a treatment program, while the uninfected population received prevention counseling.
06/08/08
Kenya’s Political Woes Disrupting Treatment of HIV Patients
Source: Providence Journal:: Gina Macris; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention